From June 22 until July 5, a group of librarians, archivists, and other library workers is traveling around Palestine and Israel in order to connect with colleagues, bear witness, share skills, and seek out possibilities for joint work: … read more …

Palestinian singer Mohamad Assaf, a finalist in the Arab Idol TV show has responded to the Israeli occupation army spokesperson Avichay Adraee denying the allegation that he faced pressure to withdraw from the competition by the Hamas government in Gaza. According to Quds news Assaf wrote an angry response on Avichay Adraee’s Facebook page saying he regretted being forced to visit Adraee hateful page which reeked of lies and deception, but he felt he needed to respond.

Assaf wrote that neither him nor his family were threatened or pressured to withdraw and he pointed to how his pictures are hung everywhere in Gaza as proof that the people in Gaza support him. Assaf also responded to Adraee’s comment about him having a ‘brilliant’ voice saying what would really be ‘brilliant’ is if you stop killing our children and stop occupying our land so that our people can enjoy hearing our singing and not…

Q: Would you say that for better or worse the US is trying to avoid some of the failures of Iraq when it comes to beheading a country suddenly?

A: No, I’d say that the US is doing what it can to preserve the status quo: (1) a government safe for US corporations to make money without having to worry about things like fair competition, labor unions and environmental regulation, (2) a place where it can send people to be tortured, (3) a government which will cooperate with Israel’s dispossession of Palestinians by continuing the siege on Gaza and (4) a lesson to the peoples of many countries around the world in similar situations: no matter how much effort you put into changing your oppressive governments which suit the USA’s interests, nothing will improve.